Merepeka Raukawa-Tait: Challenge racist views

The word racist evokes strong feelings. You can call people all the names under the sun but never racist.

The accusation over the weekend, by the head of Auckland University's department of Maori studies, that immigrants from South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States should be refused entry to New Zealand because they could hold racist views isn't earth-shattering news.

Ever since the first Pakeha arrived in our country we know this to be the case. But it may have escaped Professor Margaret Mutu's attention that in the last 20-30 years - and she can take some credit for this - it has got harder for racists to flourish in New Zealand as they once did.

We are all a product of our upbringing and the environment that shaped us. For immigrants from countries where the indigenous or first nation's people were treated as sub human or of lesser value than the dominant culture, it may be a shock to see Maori in their own country being self determining.

The gains Maori have made in recent years have been hard won and achieved at great cost to themselves over the past 200 years. They will not allow things to go backwards by tolerating racist behaviour.

Professor Mutu is signalling this not only to the government but the immigrants who she feels might be at risk.

New Zealanders today are aware of what racism looks, feels and smells like and will speak up if they see or suspect it. We all have our own prejudices. This is just human nature and we shouldn't feel guilty about these feelings.

Where we should be ashamed is when we allow feelings of bigotry and prejudice to influence how we view our fellow human beings.

Judging people by the colour of their skin or because we believe our culture, customs and language to be superior to theirs, has no place in modern society. But the real shame lies with those who allow racist conduct and behaviour to go unchallenged.

Every week I work alongside New Zealanders and immigrants who are working hard to make this country a better place.

We now have the critical mass to challenge racism. It's just a question of whether we want to or not.

When good people turn a blind eye and fail to speak up they are tacitly condoning the behaviour.

But speaking up calls for courage and on this point New Zealand, as a whole, has never measured up.

We talk about wanting as equal a society as possible but don't seem to have the courage of our convictions. Either that or we are not convinced that racism is wrong. After World War II Maori returned servicemen were not allowed to buy beer from hotels to take home.

This carried on for a number of years. Their former Pakeha soldier mates never spoke up on their behalf.

It was Martin Luther King who said "In the end it's not the words of our enemies that we remember but the silence of our friends".

In that climate racism, often institutionalised, flourished in New Zealand.

It takes guts to continuously challenge people who think they're funny with their putdown jokes and inappropriate racist remarks.

But you can't point the finger only at immigrants from the countries mentioned above.

Maori themselves are not blameless. In fact by far the majority of racist comments I have heard over the years have come from Maori.

They weren't the young disenfranchised Maori but mostly well educated professionals who had studied colonisation.

They were expressing views they had developed from their younger days and from time to time unleashed racist comments on unsuspecting Pakeha.

Perhaps Professor Mutu should have just requested the Immigration Department screen predominantly for authentic character. An oversupply of that wouldn't go amiss.